Acquisition of a BD FACSymphony S6 and A1

The Section of Microbiology is a research and teaching facility consisting of about 50 staff and students. It is part of the Department of Biology at the University of Copenhagen. It is dedicated to understanding and exploiting the immense functional diversity and adaptive potential of natural microbial communities using cutting-edge high throughput technologies. The section investigates interactions in multicellular networks using a holistic research-based perception of microorganisms as integrated members of complex microbial communities in order to further a better environment and for human health.

The department is planning to replace their 12-year-old BD FACSAria IIIU sorter with a BD FACSymphony S6 sorter. The S6 has a patented cascadecagon Longpass/Bandpass filter setup that allows for manual changes to the light cutting elements, making it unique and flexible. This will allow the department to continue using classic flow cytometry with existing custom protocols and to advance its capabilities in line with the maturation of spectral capabilities. The new facility will serve 50 internal personnel and external collaborative projects, and will be able to combine the existing sequencing facilities at the Section of Microbiology. By incorporating a next-generation FACS machine with unmatched sensitivity and sorting efficiency, the department will establish a unique Danish microbial single-cell facility that combines precision cell sorting with state-of-the-art PacBio, Nanopore, and Illumina-based sequencing platforms. In addition, we plan to purchase a BD FACSymphony A1 Analyzer that is equipped with the same lasers and Longpass/Bandpass filter setup as the S6 sorter, as we require instruments that can perform flow cytometry and cell sorting with the same protocols whilst retaining compatibility existing protocols.

The intended procurement complements existing infrastructure and expertise at the Section of Microbiology. The procurement will replace the sections ARIA IIIU. The new system is based on a similar technological platform and is operationally identical to the existing system which allows internal compatibility and reproducibility of existing systems. This is facilitated by the S6 cascadecagon setup allowing the combination and provision user optimizable LP and BP filter choices to enable in-the-field customizable mono-detector flow cytometry (legacy proving) and full-spectrum flow cytometry analysis at the same time. The new system must also align with the existing system and surrounding infrastructure to enable the completion of the high throughput facility in which the data transfer and integration has been established with bespoke systems to combine sorting and sequencing systems. Furthermore, the laboratories use established protocols with specific consumables, laboratory plastics, and other accessories that should not vary between experiments. It is essential that compatibility between existing and new systems is preserved in order to eliminate bias between past, present and shared experimental procedures using the systems.

US Patent No. covering Europe and additional areas of the world: 10184879, 10585031, 11099066, 11058869